Cashless payment devices of various kinds, such as credit cards, debit cards, and mobile computing devices configured with contactless communication means such as near field communication (NFC) transponders, are commonly used throughout the world of commerce. Typically such payment devices are issued and/or registered with a financial institution (e.g., a bank), called the issuer or issuing institution, to allow the owner of the payment device to transact using funds held with the issuer. The issuer is registered with a payment network over which the transactions are carried out. Merchants at which transactions occur have accounts with banks (or other institutions) which are also registered with the payment network, which in the context of a transaction are termed acquirers or acquirer institutions.
Typically, the issuer of a payment device will offer incentives to customers to choose a particular type of payment device (e.g., credit card). Such incentives may include reward points or other credits which are tied to total spend using the payment device, or spend with particular merchants with which the issuer has agreements. Other incentives may include discounts offered by certain merchants.
It would be desirable to have some insight into the purchasing behaviour of customers, so that the issuer can target merchants to provide offers which are more customer-centric. For example, it would be desirable to reach a better understanding of the behaviour of cardholders by microsegments, so that merchant offers can be targeted at customers in particular microsegment levels. This would assist in encouraging customer “stickiness” and therefore reducing customer attrition.
The present invention seeks to address the above issues.